The time is flying and I haven’t written a blog post for quite some time now. I am now at the end of my first two week at my assignment in Amsterdam. I am going to be here for two months working for a department called Project Governance and Improvements and that is pretty much what it is, how to governance project and also work with continues improvements. This is a new department and it is going to be the support for all Vattenfalls big projects like building a wind farm or an R&D project. My task is to look at parts of our project model and optimise part of the process.

On our last seminar week we talked a lot about culture awareness, we had a lot of interesting discussions about how we experience our own culture and from that sees others. How is to come to Sweden and work? Think of it, have you had colleagues coming from other countries or maybe an exchange student came to your class when you studied? How did you greet them welcome? How do you think he or she experienced it?

This is a very interesting question to look in to and I am trying to think of how I react and behave when I am here in Amsterdam. My first impression of the Dutch people is that they are very friendly and honestly curios to get to know me and my culture. While walking out of the office yesterday I got yet another confirmation of the openness here. I meet some of the national trainess that I only meet ones when they where in Stockholm, they where going for a beer and invited me to join. I hade a great night and meet many new people and also made some contacts that can be really useful for my project here. We hade quite a few drinks and no dinner (eating is sheeting the say here) only the tradional Dutch snack Bitteballen, it is mixed meat that are fried and you dip it in muster, really good actually. So I didn’t get the relaxing evening with a lot of sleep that I hade planed, but I had a really great night instead so much better!